James Louis McCartney was born in 12 September 1977 in London to Beatle Paul McCartney and his first wife, rock photographer and animal rights activist Linda McCartney. He is a musician, songwriter and sculptor, living in London, England. He, like older sister Heather McCartney, strives to keep his life private, unlike their fashion designer sister, Stella McCartney, and photographer sister, Mary McCartney. McCartney also has a much younger half sister, Beatrice Milly McCartney, born in 2003 to his father, and his second wife Heather Mills.

Family and personal life

James was named after both his paternal grandfather Jim McCartney and father (whose birth name is James Paul McCartney), as well as Linda's late mother, heiress Louise Linder Eastman. He spent the first two and a half years of his life on the road with his older sisters and his parents, who were in a successful rock group, Wings. After the band broke up in 1980, the McCartneys settled down with their children, who attended the local state secondary school, the Thomas Peacocke Community College in Rye, East Sussex. In 1989, McCartney, along with his older sisters Mary and Stella, again joined his parents on their world tour. He continued his education with a tutor while on the road.

In 1993, celebrating his sixteenth birthday, McCartney and his friends went out to swim in the sea. When the weather started to get bad, the water currents carried him off. Paul, Linda, and Stella rushed to the site, distraught and helpless. Luckily, McCartney was recovered back to shore safely.

On 17 April 1998, in Tucson, Arizona, James McCartney, along with his father and sisters, was at his mother's side when she died from breast cancer, which had been diagnosed in 1995. Later that year, McCartney graduated from Bexhill College, near his home in East Sussex, where he pursued studies in A Level Art.

James is devoted to his family and famously appeared in support of Stella at her 1999 fashion show (her first show following the death of their mother) seated in their mother's place next to his father.

In 1995, McCartney introduced his older sister Mary to television producer Alistair Donald, the man she would later marry. He has five nephews and one niece: Mary's three sons Arthur Alistair Donald (born 3 April 1999), Elliot Donald (born 1 August 2002), and Sam Aboud (born 11 August 2008); Stella's son Miller Alasdhair James Willis (born 25 February 2005), her daughter Bailey Linda Olwyn Willis (born 8 December 2006), and son Beckett Robert Lee Willis (born 8 January 2008).

In 1999, McCartney, who is a vegan, wrote a letter to the Governor of Wisconsin to try to prevent the Dairy Expo company from selling cows' milk, which he believes was intended for calves and not for humans to drink. This activism is reminiscent of his late mother, and is shared by his father and sisters.

Career

James is most notable in the music business for playing guitar and drums as well as co-writing a few songs on some of his father's solo albums, including Flaming Pie (1997) and Driving Rain (2001). On Flaming Pie, he has an electric guitar solo on the track "Heaven on a Sunday." On Driving Rain, he co-wrote the songs "Spinning On An Axis" and "Back In The Sunshine Again" with his father, and played percussion on the former track and guitar on the latter. He also plays lead guitar on his mother's posthumously released solo album, Wide Prairie.

In 2005, he was spotted accompanying his father during his American tour.

McCartney is currently recording a solo album with his father's help, which is expected to be released in 2010.

James McCartney made his U.S. debut, performing November 14, 2009 at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center, during the Fourth Annual David Lynch Weekend for World Peace and Meditation in Fairfield, Iowa.

"Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" is a song composed by Carl Perkins adapted from a similar song by Rex Griffin (Decca, 1936) Perkins recorded the song in 1957 which was covered by The Beatles in 1964.

Carl Perkins changed the music and added his own lyrics but retained the refrain and adapted two verses from the Rex Griffin song. Perkins changed the theme of the song, however, from bravado and narcissism to rock and roll groupies and the frenzy and mania of rock and roll stardom. In the Smith version, the theme is about drinking moonshine whiskey and womanizing. In Perkins' alternate take, there is an additional verse not found in Griffin's song. Perkins added two new verses, changed the theme of the song, and wrote entirely new music.

It was later covered by Johnny Cash and performed by Bruce Springsteen in concert in 1998 as a tribute to Carl Perkins.

The Beatles' version

The Beatles recorded "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" on 18 October 1964 at EMI Studios in Abbey Road, London, with George Harrison on vocals. It was first released as the final song on Beatles for Sale in the UK later that year, and as the last track on the US album Beatles '65.

The recording finishes with a false ending, with the final phrase repeating itself after the song seems to have stopped. A version recorded live at the Star-Club in Hamburg in December 1962 contained four of these musical phrases.

The Beatles also recorded "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" in June 1963 for the BBC radio programme Pop Go The Beatles, and in November 1964 for Saturday Club. The latter recording can be heard on Live at the BBC.

The Beatles performed it live again after their studio recording was released. A version recorded at Shea Stadium on 15 August 1965 was included on Anthology 2.

"Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" is a song written by John Lennon (credited to Lennon/McCartney) and performed by The Beatles on their 1968 double-disc album The Beatles, also known as "The White Album."

Origins

In 1980, Lennon said: "That was just a sort of nice line that I made into a song. It was about me and Yoko. Everybody seemed to be paranoid except for us two, who were in the glow of love. Everything is clear and open when you're in love. Everybody was sort of tense around us: You know, 'What is she doing here at the session? Why is she with him?' All this sort of madness is going on around us because we just happened to want to be together all the time."

The song's title is the longest of any in the Beatles' catalog, and it originates from a quote by the Maharishi; however, as for the "and My Monkey" part, George Harrison attested that he didn't "know where that came from." The most common interpretation is that John's "monkey" was a pet name for Yoko Ono, though the most obvious interpretation is that the use of "monkey" is to refer to an addiction of some kind, which would make the title humorous.

Recording

The released version of the song was recorded at Abbey Road Studios on 27 June 1968, and an overdub session the next day.

* Fats Domino covered the song in 1970, which pleased Lennon, a long-time fan of Domino's. * Ramsey Lewis included an instrumental version of the song on his 1968 album Mother Nature's Son. * The American rock group the Feelies also covered the song on their 1980 debut album, Crazy Rhythms. * Phish covered the song when they played the entire album on Halloween 1994, which they released as Live Phish Volume 13. * Beatallica (a satire tribute band that plays songs derived from those of the Beatles and Metallica ) covered the song as "Everybody's Got a Ticket to Ride Except for Me and My Lightning", which combines the titles of this song, "Ticket to Ride", and the Metallica song "Ride the Lightning". * Kristin Hersh (main singer and songwriter of the Throwing Muses) covered this song on her 1999 Echo EP, which was released in conjunction with her third solo album, Sky Motel. * The Trews have covered this song during many of their live sets. * Soundgarden would play the song in 1988, and there is also a bootleg with a demo. * 60ft Dolls put a live cover of the song on track two of their 'Happy Shopper' CD Single in 1996. * Tea Leaf Green played a cover of the song around midnight on New Years Eve, December 31, 2008.

Cultural references

In the episode Speaking Terms / Tooth and Nail of the Nickelodeon cartoon Rocko's Modern Life, the title of the song was referenced by the main character. In this episode, Rocko has acquired a nail-biting problem and tries to hide his hands under a ham and a monkey puppet as he answers the door. His friends, Heffer and Filburt try to question him, to which Rocko replies "So what? Everyone's got something to hide except for meat, and my monkey!"

Marilyn Manson alluded to the song live frequently during the early-mid 90's, as well as wrote a song called "My Monkey" which loosely can said to be influenced from this song.

Robbie Williams released his own song entitled "Me and My Monkey" on his 2002 album, Escapology.

In the Vertigo comic Y: The Last Man, issue #46, Yorick calls "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" the worst Beatles song. He uses it to compare the relationship he has with his pet monkey, Ampersand. Ampersand is the only living being he tells everything to.

Heather Louise McCartney (née See) was born December 31, 1962 in Tucson, Arizona to Linda McCartney (née Eastman) and Joseph Melville See Jr., an American geologist. She is the adoptive daughter of Paul McCartney.

Biography

McCartney's parents divorced after only eighteen months of marriage, because See had taken off for Africa and expected his wife and daughter to follow. Linda See refused, and sent a letter to her husband stating that she wanted a divorce. After raising her daughter on her own in New York City for several years, Linda McCartney married Paul McCartney of The Beatles in 1969, when her daughter was six years old. That same year, she was formally adopted by Paul McCartney through legal process (and prior consent from See, her biological father) and took the McCartney name. Also in 1969, McCartney appeared in the last Beatles movie, Let It Be. She has stated that although See had a lifelong influence on her, she considers Paul McCartney to be her father.

A sister, Mary, was born in 1969, followed by another sister, Stella, in 1971 and a brother, James, in 1977. Heather's former stepmother Heather Mills is five years younger than she. She has a much younger half-sister, Beatrice Milly McCartney, born to Paul McCartney and Heather Mills on October 28, 2003. She has five nephews and one niece: Mary's three sons Arthur Alistair Donald (born 3 April 1999), Elliot Donald (born 1 August 2002) and Sam Aboud (born 11 August 2008). Stella's two sons Miller Alasdhair James Willis (born 25 February 2005) and Beckett Robert Lee Willis (born January 8, 2008, and her daughter Bailey Linda Olwyn Willis (born 8 December 2006).

Beginning shortly after the birth of Stella in 1971, McCartney and her siblings accompanied their famous parents around the world with their successful rock group Wings. This continued until 1980 when the band stopped touring. She has said that, as a child, she had trouble forming friendships with other children and had difficulty fitting in; she has also said she did not do well in school.

With encouragement from her mother, she took up printing at the Photographers' Workshop in Covent Garden, and was talented enough to win the Young Black and White Printer of the Year Award in Ilford for a photo she called "Waterfall." Her success encouraged her to go on to art college, where she discovered a talent for pottery and design.

During the early 1980s, Heather McCartney dated musician Billy Idol.

In her twenties, Heather McCartney was hospitalized in a clinic for treatment of an emotional disorder. A few years after her release, she traveled to Mexico with very little money and spent several months living among natives of the Huichol and Tarahumara tribes. She felt liberated by this experience.

Later, McCartney moved to Arizona to live with See, where she became even more interested in ceramics. She later returned to England to work as a potter. Her pottery is now famous and critically acclaimed in the United Kingdom.

In 1995, McCartney's mother Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer and died on April 17, 1998, in Tucson, Arizona.

To date, McCartney remains a prominent potter and designer, with exhibitions in New York City, Phoenix, Tokyo, Paris and Sydney, and has been described by Wedgewood as "one of Britain's most exciting new talents." In 1999, Heather unveiled a line of houseware products in Atlanta, Georgia called the Heather McCartney Houseware Collection. She was accompanied by Paul McCartney.

In line with the beliefs of her parents, and siblings, Heather has interests in ecology, animal rights and native peoples. McCartney practices Catholicism.

Currently, Heather McCartney lives on Paul McCartney's Sussex estate in England, where she maintains a low profile and continues to work as a potter.